Aspiring to the Immortal Path
chapter-439-30041322

"Tang Jie is here! Do you dare fight me!?"

Tang Jie's roar resounded through the heavens, and even Chang Baimei couldn't help but be slightly taken aback by Tang Jie's boldness.

In the formation, the skies flashed with lightning. Tang Jie had not concealed the fact that he had laid down a formation.

Chang Baimei could tell at a glance that Tang Jie was in a Grade 5 formation.

With a grunt, Chang Baimei muttered, "You want to deal with this old man with this formation you hastily set up? Keep dreaming!"

If Tang Jie had hidden the formation, Chang Baimei might have cautiously probed him.

But this formation flaunting its power did the opposite, filling him with confidence.

With his strength and two Transformation great fiends, a mere Grade 5 formation was nothing.

Coldly laughing, Chang Baimei said, "Arrogant junior!"

Chang Baimei thrust his finger forward, and an azure dragon phantom emerged to lunge at Tang Jie. Under his control, it spat out a gout of flame, like a real dragon.

Tang Jie was unafraid. He brought his arms together, and the lightning behind him coalesced into a dragon of lightning.

The azure dragon and lightning dragon clashed, sending out azure flames and violet lightning in all directions.

Ultimately, both dragons disappeared without a trace.

Chang Baimei chuckled as he drew back his finger. Although he didn't have the upper hand in this exchange, he had only used 70% of his power, and he also had his five war beasts to help him.

Tang Jie truly was stronger with the Five Lightning Formation, but not by enough.

Now that he had finished probing Tang Jie's strength, Chang Baimei laughed. "Your skill is nothing much!"

Waving his sleeves, he charged into the formation.

The human and five beasts charged together, treating the Grade 5 formation as if it didn't exist.

The moment they entered the formation, large swaths of lightning crashed down on them.

Chang Baimei scoffed and raised a hand to meet the lightning.

The Spirit Ring around him burst out, and Chang Baimei shouted, "Tang Jie, let me show you what it means to be at Celestial Heart!"

With this shout, the lightning descending from the sky began to coalesce into a giant palm that hurtled in Tang Jie's direction.

"My heart joins with the heart of the heavens, thus being the Celestial Heart!" Chang Baimei crazily laughed. "You sought power through a formation, little knowing that my will is the will of the heavens, and my Dao is the Heavenly Dao! This puny little formation is mine to use! Die!"

To create the Celestial Heart was to generate a Spirit Heart within one's person to meet with the will of the heavens and merge with the Heavenly Dao.

Tang Jie had known this long ago, but he had never known where it was merged or how it actually manifested. Now that he saw Chang Baimei waving his hand around, easily taking control of the Grade 5 formation and gathering the lightning for himself to use, the essence of the Celestial Heart was finally revealed.

As the hand of lightning rumbled down, Tang Jie was unmoved, snorting, "The likes of you can merge with the Heavenly Dao? The heart of the heavens is unchanging, but the hearts of humans are forever sinking into ruin!"

He clenched and released his hand, then raised it upward toward the lightning palm. This simple action caused a grandiose energy to billow out, and the giant lightning palm fell apart.

Chang Baimei was startled. "The Violet Jade Mantra?"

"You're rather sharp."

The Basking Moon Sect's Violet Jade Mantra was of the resplendent orthodox tradition, and it emphasized majesty and style. In terms of spell arts, it was average, but when it came to cultivation level, it was extremely strong. And as a cultivator climbed higher and higher, they came to rely less and less on spell arts, but the requirements on their comprehension of cultivation realms grew higher and higher.

Celestial Heart was the most obvious dividing line in this aspect.

The Beast Refining Gate primarily relied on numbers for victory, so their comprehension of cultivation realms was far inferior to the Basking Moon Sect's. And since it was Tang Jie who had laid down the formation, with the Violet Jade Mantra, Tang Jie was able to easily take back control.

With a thrust of his finger, the lightning gathered back into that giant hand. This time, it was under Tang Jie's control and hurtled toward Chang Baimei.

Chang Baimei raised his white eyebrows. "Go!"

The five war beasts moved in unison.

Since he had failed to take control of the formation using his advantage in cultivation realm, he would have to rely on the power of his subordinates to carry the day. And at least in this aspect, Chang Baimei was much stronger than his opponent.

The white snake and pangolin attacked Tang and Shen while the golden eagle, black bear, and hyena moved to fend off the lightning.

Tang Jie grunted when he saw the two Transformation great fiends coming at him. Forming signs with his hands, he threw a spell art at the white snake. At the same time, Shen Qingdan used her War King Lance on the white snake. It was clear that the pair intended to handle the white snake first.

The white snake chuckled, enduring their attacks as it opened its maw and thrust out its tongue at Tang Jie's face like an arrow.

This white snake's tongue was quite lethal, the strongest part of the snake's body. It was coated with poison, and its tip was extremely sharp. Once it hit the target, the venom would be injected, and even a Celestial Heart True Person would be paralyzed.

The tongue shot straight at Tang Jie's face, and there was an explosion of blood as Tang Jie's head was pulverized.

But this result left both the white snake and the pangolin stunned.

They had thought that Tang Jie would try and fight back, but he was dead after one strike?

The white snake and pangolin immediately put the brakes on their attack, momentarily baffled.

At the same time, Chang Baimei roared in shock and anger, "Watch out!"

Whoosh!

There was a golden flash.

A figure shot out from the side, swinging a blade at the snake tongue that had yet to withdraw. With this blow, the snake tongue went flying into the air.

"Ssssst!" The white snake bitterly hissed in pain.

Who could this person charging at it be but Tang Jie?

"Bastard!" the white snake angrily bellowed, its long body moving to whip Tang Jie.

Tang Jie jumped back and thrust his left hand. "Turn!"

His surroundings trembled. Chang Baimei saw the scenery spin around him, and he grimaced.

The fake mountain was the same fake mountain, the sea water was still the sea water, and the giant tree was the same giant tree, but his position had somehow shifted.

Chang Baimei had gone from standing in the rear to standing in the front, and when he turned his head, he saw the white snake. Shen Qingdan appeared on the other end, fighting with the golden eagle. As for Tang Jie, who had been standing in front of the white snake, he now appeared behind it…

He was smiling.

The golden blade swung down at the center of the white snake's body, seeking to cut it into two.

But Transformation great fiends weren't that easy to deal with. The blade only cut a small part of the way into the body before the white snake threw its head back and roared. An enormous power erupted from it that blasted Tang Jie away.

Waves of spiritual energy prevented Tang Jie from getting close.

The white snake turned around, her head turning into the face of a beautiful woman that was distorted with rage.

She shrieked, "You're seeking death!" She produced two arms that snatched at Tang Jie.

Her hands were as swift as lightning, instantly reaching Tang Jie's face. Tang Jie suddenly laughed and then snapped his fingers. "Five Lightning, go!"

Five lights erupted in the sky.

Five bolts of lightning abruptly appeared, and not even the surrounding flashes of lightning could conceal their radiance.

They were like five golden blades. The moment they appeared, they sliced down at the white snake.

Five gouts of blood gushed into the air, and the white snake collapsed. Lightning crackled around her body, and for a moment, she was unable to get back up.

While Chang Baimei was powerful, he couldn't undo the formation. He understood neither what this formation was nor how to deal with it. Knowing that he had entered the formation and probing its strength was the limit of his ability. From his perspective, strength was everything, so there was no need for him to delve into the secrets of formations.

The Five Lightning Formation's true power wasn't in the endless lightning, but the five bolts of Yin Lightning formed in the process.

In truth, the power of the lightning wasn't even at the level of a Grade 4 formation. Otherwise, how could Chang Baimei so easily stop a Grade 5 formation, which was supposed to be capable of killing a Celestial Heart cultivator?

But these five bolts of Yin Lightning were different. As the formation operated, it would gather Yin energy into lightning bolts of immense power. The Five Lightning Formation was so called because of this Five Lightning Crash.

The Five Lightning Crash was extremely powerful, and if it had been able to strike at full power, the white snake would have been dead rather than heavily injured.

Tang Jie's Grade 5 formation had been hastily formed and had many problems. This was precisely why he had to rely on extreme methods to make up for it, and the Five Lightning Formation was a product of his circumstances.

But the five bolts of lightning had their own limits. Firstly, they required time to build power and could not be sent out repeatedly. Secondly, they need to absorb Yin energy, and this requirement was fulfilled by materials. Thirdly, the formation could only gather lightning bolts five times, for a total of 25 bolts of Yin Lightning.

The Five Lightning Fall had left the white snake heavily injured.

The pangolin panicked and thrust its spear at Tang Jie.

Tang Jie thrust out his left hand again. "Turn!"

Everyone changed positions again.

This was the power of the Stop Gate Banner.

The Five Lightning Formation didn't possess the power to shift positions.

But it could not be forgotten that they were in the middle of a hidden realm where space was already disordered. Shifting of positions was part of the nature of the hidden realm, and only a little effort was needed to use it. The Stop Gate Banner was the crux to controlling all of this.

As for Tang Jie using his duplicate to serve as bait while he hid himself, this was thanks to the View Gate Banner. As for the Alarm Gate Banner, its usage was very simple. It simply increased the power of the formation. Without it, Tang Jie's crude formation would have found it very difficult to hurt the white snake.

With these banners, Tang Jie was able to maximize the power of the formation. One could even call him an expert in this aspect.

With this spatial shift, the pangolin now appeared on Tang Jie's other side, and as it charged with its spear, it ended up far away from Tang Jie.

Tang Jie appeared next to the white snake, stabbing with the golden blade once more.

While the white snake was powerful, its tongue had been sliced off and its body heavily injured. Its condition was even worse than the weakened state Chang Mingxin had been in.

Just as the blade was about to stab into the white snake's head, the white snake suddenly transformed its upper half into a woman, the lower half remaining that of a snake.

This half-snake woman gave Tang Jie a bitter glance. At that moment, it was the most infatuating gaze in the world.

Her red lips parted. "You… Can you really bring yourself to kill me?"

Tang Jie's heart trembled. This woman seemingly turned into Xu Miaoran, begging for her life. There was a great rumble in his mind, and then he froze like he had been struck dumb.

The white snake smiled and opened her arms, placing them around Tang Jie's neck as she muttered, "That's right…"

She slowly approached Tang Jie and placed her head over his shoulder.

Behind Tang Jie, out of sight, she opened her mouth, revealing savage fangs as she moved to bite down on the back of Tang Jie's neck.